According to his death certificate Atkins was 258 lbs at the time of his death, so he certainly did die an overweight man. The proximate cause of his death, however, was a fall on ice whereupon he cracked his head. He entered a coma and was admitted to a hospital. During this time he was fed mainly by a glucose IV and he experienced major organ failure, fluid retention and bloating. A copy of his medical records given to USA Today by his widow indicated that he weighed only 195 lbs upon being admitted to the hospital.

He did suffer a heart attack at some point in his life. There is speculation that it was a heart attack that caused the fall, but as no autopsy was performed there is no way to prove this either way.

Those in the CARBOHYDRATE-RESTRICTED group saw an INCREASE in the production of glucose by the liver through gluconeogenesis, where the body can make its own carbs from the protein consumed in the diet. This is why even in the absence of a significant amount of carbohydrates the body can still function at a high performance level–something the researchers took note of.

My Question:
Doesn’t that mean that we should have some carbs after sport to avoid that the protein we’re eating gets transformed into glucose? Or, that we should eat some sugar before workout to avoid that most of the available protein gets transformed into glucose (before our body starts attacking fat)???

@ Samuel. Yes, he slipped on ice. He also bloated up in hospital. So an average-weight man hits is head and dies, nothing sensational about it. Unfortunately, the truth often gets in the way of a good story.
@ Andrew. It’s whisky and diet coke for me! Yeah, I’ve stood in the condiment aisle for ages too, looking at all the labels. You gotta try corned beef and pickled onions! Hope they’ve got jars of pickled onions in the US.
@ G. I don’t know what study is being referred to there or what the exact carb, fat and protein levels were, it sounds more like the higher end of a low carb diet. However, when carbs are low enough the body will depend largely on ketones, not glucose from protein conversion. NOT good for cyclists and such as Cacouno states BUT for short, high intensity bouts with breaks in between (as in THT training), ketones are great. Another point is that I stress in the MANS article to assess your own lowest carb level, or ‘carbohydrate threshold’. For me, it’s quite low, but if you need 65grams a day, go for it. Therefore our protein being ‘stolen’ for glucose isn’t a concern for MuscleHackers. (Also see my post on the mid-week carb spike for more tips).
Mark

Every time you see a new drug being pushed as the next cure for cancer/diabetes/heart disease you sigh and think that if low carb diets were widely accepted these drug companies would go out of business.

When you start speaking in nutritional jargon you watch people’s eyes glaze over and wish others cared about their health as much as you do.